The abduction of Caramen T.

From hospital to hospital
August 7th, 2018

I started to feel not well around 2016.

High blood pressure, feeling dizzy, a bloated body, losing power, etc.

Going from hospital to hospital, but nobody could find what was wrong with me.

In the mean time, I was taking care of my daughter who was 14 years old and had many activities.

A full time nanny job.

After going to many hospitals, without satisfying result and knowing the reputation of the Military hospitals, I chose finally to try the Military hospital in my home town.

Fort Suranaree in N. Ratchasima.

The Cardiologist seemed to be very knowledgable and he was ready to look at what was causing my illness.

He detected that I had a high blood-sugar level (480) and prescribed a medication to reduce this.

But that was not changing anything in the way I feel.

Finally, in August 2018, after trying all he could think off, he ordered a full body scan with contrast fluid in my blood to see the veins and the blood flow.

After the scan, I was told to go home and wait for the result.

On August 10, 2018, a Friday evening, while I was shopping at Big-C with my daughter, the Military hospital called me.

They asked me to go to hospital without delay, ASAP.

20180810 161449.mp3, Call from the military hospital.

I went immediately to the hospital and got the bad news.

My Aorta was in a very bad condition from the heart to my legs.

The Aorta wall was in some places already so thin that it was ready to burst and leave me bleeding to death.

My Aorta was already about 5.7 cm in diameter and the other veins were shrinking or obstructing the blood flow.

This was causing a high blood pressure.

The scan report from the military hospital.

Urgent surgery was advised.

I asked the price for this operation at the Military hospital, but they could not give an exact price.

Estimated, the operation would cost around the 1,5 million baht (hospital and revalidation included).

But due to my advanced age and my previous medical conditions, complications could arise almost sure and these complications were difficult to be calculated in the estimate.

This was way above my budget and I needed to find another solution.

I had a chat with my brother to ask if he could ask a second advice from doctor in Belgium.

His answer was that he was not a Cardiac patient and "that it was nothing serious".

The Maharat, a public hospital, would be another option.

My former Cardiologist, Dr. Pinit, was working at the Maharat and he knew my medical history already for many years.

Saturday August 11, early in the morning, I went with my daughter to the hospital St. Mary where Dr. Pinit was working part-time to ask for a price for the surgery.

Before leaving,I send an answer to my brother.

Whilst they were calculating the price for the surgery, the nurses were measuring my blood pressure and other things.

My blood pressure was already over 200 and still going up, so the nurses lay me on a bed and gave me medication to reduce the blood pressure.

My daughter was the whole time with me and chatting with her school friends.

After they calculated the cost for this operation, there was no way I could afford to have the operation performed in Thailand.

I had no health insurance and no financial intervention from the healthcare in Belgium.

There was also the unknown factor of a possible (sure) complication and this would make the final price too high for my budget.

The only option was to book a flight to my home country (Belgium) and have the operation performed there.

In Belgium, healthcare is (almost) free and surely more affordable.

But this could jeopardize the studies of my daughter who was following the high school (Grade 7).

Back home, I continued the chat with my brother.

What stroked me was the sudden change of tone of my brother, Luis Trivino.

He was talking about my daughter like if she was some object which did not belong there.

“You can always contact us, and for Samui you will be able to ask for a postponement, or test via the internet, and otherwise place her with an acquaintance.”

I was always welcome in his house.

For my daughter, Samui, I would have to look for a relative where she could stay.

“At home your room is ready and Samui can sleep in the mobile home.”

For me, “my” room was ready.

My daughter, Samui, could sleep in the mobile home.

Like an animal outside in a cage.

I knew that my brother disliked everything Thai like hell and used to name them "Thaidioten (Thai idiots)".

But this was something I was not used to hear from my brother and I was not very happy with his way of talking.

But my health was more important at that moment and I was not looking to make a quarrel at this point.

The next day, I made a decision and told my daughter that we were flying to Belgium to get the surgery.

My daughter informed with her teacher, Miss BeeBee, at what date the school would start again to tell her about my decision.

The school was starting on Thursday 16th, and I was planning to fly away as soon as possible.

I would need to try to contact the direction of the school, to ask permission for a leave, while everybody was in holiday.

The following days, I talked about this situation with a few very close friends of my daughter and me.

Her teacher at Assumption; Linda, the owner of the horse riding school Northstar Equestrian; Kru Chang from the Aikido Club; Dave, her Mentor Dave; etc. and they came all to the same conclusion: "Fly ASAP to Belgium and let the surgery be done in Belgium".

They would all be glad to take care of my daughter during the time I would be in Belgium.

My daughter liked the idea too, to stay with them and continue her school while I would be in Belgium.

But I was already told by the doctors in Thailand that this kind of surgery was very dangerous and I might suffer an Aorta rupture during my flight to Belgium.

So, the only option was to take my daughter with me.

In the event that the surgery would go wrong, my daughter would be with my family and they would gladly take care of her.

On my previous trips to Belgium, I discussed this already with my family and made already arrangements to have family members who would take care of her if I would die.

I did make already a "Last Will" in Thailand in 2009 and I did ask my lawyer to take care of the arrangements to fly my daughter to Belgium if I would die.

Excerpt of my Last will written in 2009.

Monday, August 13, I went to the school to have a meeting with the direction and ask for permission for my daughter to be absent from the school for about 2 months.

This was granted under the condition that my daughter would keep studying at home and keep in touch with the teachers.

Later, in January 2019, I was able to download the Facebook/Messenger archive from my daughter and I was astonished to read what the doctor told my daughter.

A 16 year old child.